Tree Farm to be Transformed into a National Park

The city is planning to transform a State owned tree farm into a national park since the farm has been troubled with economic difficulties because of labor and maintenance costs. The farm is located in Bao’an district is called Luotian Forestry Farm has an area of 930 hectares and with 36 employees. Since the farm is located within the ecological protection boundary of the city, it cannot be develop for business purposes and logging is prohibited.

To gain extra revenue, a part of the farm was rented out in 1990 for fruit tree planting and property development but contracts are expiring soon and the land on lease cannot be used to create factories or villa due to the ecological protection boundary. Although there are senior employees working at the farm it don’t have enough income. As of last year the municipal urban management bureau started to subsidize the farm for 3 million yuan a year.

Compared to Shatoujiao Forestry Farm in Yantian District which is doing well and employing 120 employees. Furthermore the farm is receiving subsidies from the district and provincial government the farm is operating a property management company, a hteol in Wutong Mountain and a landscaping company.

This prompted the Bao’an urban management bureau to suggest transforming the Luotian farm into a nonprofit institution that can be supported by government funds and can be open to the public once its turn to a park.